Reclaimed Wood & Black Pipe TV Stand

After many, many, many months, I'm finally making good on the promise to post more pictures and details about our reclaimed wood & black pipe tv stand. Whenever I post a glimpse of our tv stand on social networking, I'm always asked questions about it. The reason why it's taken so long for me to finally do this might seem silly....

Do you see those cords?! They are A MESS. I'm so embarrassed that they were like this for the past 9 months. And there was no way I could take pictures of the tv stand from different angles without the cords showing. Surely the cords would have been a distraction in the photos and would have taken away from the beauty of the tv stand.

(Kidding....)

Between not being able to find a good spot for the tv antenna (we're cable free) and all of the cords just hanging there, something had to be done about that cord situation. Just look at that cord disaster! Look at it! Last weekend I pulled the tv stand away from the wall to vacuum under it (Sam is shedding like crazy right now!) and the next thing I knew I was on my way to Menards to find a solution for my cord problem.

The solution I came up with was to put thumb screws into the mounting bracket holes on the back of the tv so there was something to wrap the cords around. I also purchased Command mini adhesive hooks to mount the antenna to the back of the tv. Not the prettiest solution, but at least I no longer have cords hanging all over.

For one of the cords that was just too short to wrap around the thumb screws, I wrapped it around pipe.

To hide the remaining cords I used some of my old books. Can you believe I paid $1 each (or less) for those old books at an antique store in St. Charles, MN?! Some of them date back to the 1800's and have writing in them from the original owners. So cool.

I was afraid the wrapped cords around the thumb screws would be visible from the side of the tv, but the tv is so close to the wall that you'd have to put your head right next to the wall to see them.

And seriously, if your head is up against the wall looking at the cord situation behind my tv, just...go home.

So now that I shared with you how I hid the cords behind our tv stand, I'll share the details of the tv stand itself. This tv stand happened to be another combined creation between myself and my husband. Just like all of the other projects we've created in our home, the idea for the tv stand was something I thought up in my head and shared with him as best I could either verbally or with an awful sketch. He is then able to create and build these ideas tweaking them along the way.

Some women get excited over purses or shoes. Maybe even diamond earrings or free babysitting. For me, it's antiquated items for our home and vacuum cleaners (gosh I love a good vacuum). The old growth reclaimed wood that we used for the tv stand was found at Used Anew, LLC in Sparta, WI. I think my husband and Larry, the owner of Used Anew, LLC turned almost every single one of the boards over for me to approve (or refuse).

Used Anew, LLC is a reclaimed wood gold mine. In addition to reclaimed wood, you will find reclaimed doors, windows, corrugated tin, and more. My husband stumbled across Craigslist postings for Used Anew, LLC. and it's now our go-to stop for reclaimed wood. We used to get our reclaimed wood from my Amish friend Henry at his shop, H&L Rustic Reclaim, but not being able to go there on Sundays made it a bit difficult for us. With Used Anew, LLC., all we have to do is call Larry ahead of time, even if it's later in the day on Sunday, and he can usually make it work.

You can find threaded pipe and fittings at your local hardware store (we like Menards here in the Midwest) or you can even order online from online retailers like Amazon.com.

Here are some tips from my husband for planning out the pipe frame of your piece:

- Pick a pipe diameter that compliments the overall size of the piece and the thickness of the wood you are going to use. You don’t want to pick a 1/2” pipe to build a large piece of furniture since it will make it look like the piece isn’t balanced.

- With threaded pipe you need to keep working in a line so if you start at one point and need to tie back into that you will need a threaded union which allows you to tie two pieces together.

- For attaching the wood to the pipe you can buy threaded pipe flanges which give you a flat mounting surface and four holes to screw the pieces together.

- For the feet or base you can also use pipe flanges or get creative and use pipe couplings or use a threaded reducer (or increaser in this case) to give it another look.

- Depending upon the size of your piece you may need to cut pipe to length. Most hardware stores carry pipe nipples in lengths from 1.5” to 12” long and then 10’ or 20’ pieces of pipe to cut to fit. Some stores will cut the pipe and thread it for you, but if you can’t find a place to do this you can always use pipe nipples and threaded couplings to make longer pieces.

Shop around for the fittings and compare prices for galvanized and black fittings. They are going to get painted so no worries about the different finishes. Galvanized is generally more expensive, but for some fittings you may luck out and find them cheaper in galvanized than in black.

For assembling the pieces together use a pipe wrench and give the fittings a few turns tighter than hand tight. You can go hand tight, but the piece feels much more solid when the pipe is tightened into the fitting all the way.

Black pipe and fittings are usually oily so clean them with a degreaser prior to painting them. A few coats of flat black spray paint is all they will need.

Use felt pads under the floor flanges so you can easily move the tv stand for cleaning (and because depending on the size of the top, the stand can be very heavy in the end).

For the bottom shelf, the piece of wood is just resting on the pipe. Since we don't have little kids running around on a regular basis, I wasn't too worried about the shelf falling down. If anyone is going to knock it down, it would probably be me when I'm cleaning it.

And speaking of cleaning it, I find the best way to clean reclaimed wood is to use a vacuum nozzle with a dusting attachment. Before you bring reclaimed wood into the house though, I highly suggest you seal it with Minwax Polyacrylic.

One thing you have to keep in mind when working with reclaimed wood is that you will find irregularities in the wood. This is what gives the wood it's character and charm. As you can see above, the thickness of the reclaimed beam that we used for the top of the tv stand was different from end to end - most likely due to aging. The beam was cut in half and then each piece was butt up against each other. We used a Kreg pocket hole jig to attach both pieces together. The difference in thickness is only noticeable on one end so that end faces the corner of the room.

That end also exposes bolt impressions and cut marks in the wood and character like this cannot be mimicked. Old growth lumber used to construct barns a century ago with its bolt holes, discolorations, and splits has been air dried for years and years and will give any piece of furniture a handsome and sturdy look. If you want to add rustic charm to your home, look for old growth reclaimed wood.

Reclaimed wood adds instant warmth to any room and I'm so happy this beautiful wood ended up in our living room and not in a burn pile or landfill.

I'll soon be sharing the details of our factory cart coffee table as well as the reclaimed wood & black pipe bookshelf that we also have in our living room. :)

I love every thing about this Rose!! So cool! Lovin the windmill pieces too and I love a good vacuum cleaner also. Ha! Stopping by to let you know you are being featured on Friday’s P3 Party post! Have a great week! Thanks for pinning!
Best,
Kim

Oh my!! What is not to love, Rose???? Your TV stand is absolutely GORGEOUS!! LOVE the farmhouse-industrial look-and those windmill pieces-make my heart skip a bit! Thank you so much for sharing at The Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop! Sharing and Pinning for sure!

Gorgeous chunks of wood married with industrial pipe = drool worthy furniture! This is absolutely gorgeous! Well done! I do hope you will come and share it at Making Broken Beautiful this week ... it has just begun! :) I hope you have a great day!
Smiles!
Terry
The Curator's Collection & Making Broken Beautiful

So excited that you shared at Making Broken Beautiful last week ... can't help but feature this gorgeous table at this weeks party! Thank you again!
Smiles!
Terry
The Curator's Collection & Making Broken Beautiful Thursday

Hi Rose,
I have a question about unions: Why do you need to use unions for the length-wise pipes but not for the width-wise pipes? How do you get them to line up properly/screw in tightly to the tees without unions?
Let me know if you can! Would love to start working on my own project sometime soon :) (thanks for the inspo)

I think the t.v stand you,s have built is an amazing piece of furniture. What a great idea.Can not wait to see the bookshelf. If it is the one I seen a bit of on the wall over from that amazing t.v stand it looks to be another awesome piece.Also the coffee table.Can;t wait for more pics of the rest of the piece,s. Amazing job guy,s.

rose, your table is an outstanding piece. i was surfing the web looking for a nice piece for our vacation home and yours is the piece i want to mimick. i have a question though ... i didn't see any pics that show how the small shelf (upon which you're books sit), is attached to the top shelf. i couldn't figure it out by looking at your parts pic either. any chance you'd care to elaborate on the assembly of that part of your design? otherwise ... great job!

Note the number of parts do not equal what are needed to construct this unit, with or without the extra shelf. For example, the list and picture of parts show six threaded tees while EIGHT are required. Also the pictured parts are not the same in number as the listed parts.

My dad and I are busy making this at the moment for my place - it's such an awesome project to work on together! We have the base made, and now I need to use thinners on the base to get the oil off, paint it, and then go get the wood. Can't wait for it to be done... After that, I want to do bookshelves like you have in the background for either side, so half the width. Thank you for posting this - it's been so wonderful to bond with my dad over something that will be so beautiful!